The origins of the Texas Fashion Collection began in 1938 when Stanley and Edward Marcus preserved examples of top designers' works in honor of Carrie Marcus Neiman, co-founder of Neiman Marcus and arbiter of taste for the store. Nearly 200 pieces of apparel from Carrie Neiman's personal fashion collection became the basis of the Dallas Museum of Fashion. After her death in 1953, the Carrie Marcus Neiman Foundation maintained the collection until the Dallas Fashion Group secured space at the Dallas Apparel Mart in the 1960s. The Dallas Museum of Fashion moved to the University of North Texas in 1972 and was renamed the Texas Fashion Collection. In 1993, the University of North Texas renovated Scoular Hall to consolidate the rare clothing objects into of climate-controlled space, which made it possible to inventory the collection as a whole for the first time. To support of this vital component of fashion history, a National Endowment for the Arts grant for history and documentation was awarded to the Collection in 1995. In 2013, with the demolition of Scoular Hall, the Texas Fashion Collection and the other programs housed in that building were relocated to a new temporary structure. The Texas Fashion Collection is overseen by Professor Myra Walker. Director and curator since 1987, she has organized numerous fashion exhibitions in Dallas, Fort Worth and New York. Since 2010, the Texas Fashion Collection has partnered with the UNT Libraries to create a digital catalog of the holdings of the collection. Accessible through the UNT Libraries' Digital Library, an increasing number of objects can be viewed via the internet.
Collections
Early in its history, the Dallas Fashion Group was successful in generating donations of designer clothing from Dallas women. Under the direction of UNT since 1972, the collection has grown from 3,000 to more than 18,000 historic items. Designs from Cristóbal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy, Oscar de la Renta and Norman Norell make up part of the collection. The famed 1965 Emilio Pucci designed Gemini IV Hostess uniform Collection for Braniff International Airways is also housed in the Texas Fashion Collection. The Braniff Pucci Collection was donated to the museum in March, 1969, and included several dresses owned by Braniff co-founder Thomas Elmer Braniff's wife Bess Braniff.
